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WOMEN^S RIGHTS: . 



OR, A TREATISE ON 



Clje litalintaiiU ^tigljts d Mmtn, 



CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED, 



AND INSCRIBED TO THE 



FEMALE COMMUNITY OF THE U. S. OF AMERICA. 



By JOSEPH SAYERS. 




CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED FOB THE AUTHOR, 

BY APPLEGATE & CO. 

1856. 



^i-'-- 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 185G, 

By JOSEPH SAYERS. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 

the Southern District of Ohio. 



^ 






PREFACE 



Man braves the storms and dangers of his fate; 
But woman is the mother of the State. 

It is my intention, in the following pages, to show to the 
female sex their inalienable rights and just claims- to a free 
participation in all the privileges and advantages pertaining 
to any civilized people or country, in due accordance with 
their sex and sphere of action in life. Notwithstanding there 
have been some things said and lectured on, and published 
in the journals and periodicals of the day, touching this 
important subject, yet, in my opinion, it has not received 
that due research and that strict investigation which its 
intrinsic value and its high importance to the succeeding 
generations so justly merit. 

Never was there a time when this subject, blended as it is 
with the moral, the virtuous, and the well-being of our 
enlightened country, needed more strict discussion and pure 
investigation than at the present. 

When we see our happy and free continent inundated with 
vice, crime, and depravity, the time is matured that the 
genial and enlightened mind of both Male and Female of our 
community should inquire into the causes and the sources 
from which such torrents of evils emanate, and establish 
permanently such remedies as would evidently produce the 
opposite happy results. ^ 

To investigate the fountains from whence these deleterious 
evils flow, and to demonstrate the means whereby, as torrents 
of vice, they may be disimbedded from their deep-worn chan- 
nels, shall be my duty, in the following pages, to illustrate. 

That the param,ount right of women to an equalization of 
literary and moral instruction in their sphere of action, as 
much as man receives in his sphere, speaking comparatively, 
has not for centuries, nor for ages past, nor is it at the 
present time universally communicated to the female youth, 
shall be my charge to investigate. 

iii 



IV PREFACE. 

This I shall prove, hj incontrovertible, logical, and present 
existing facts, to be the greatest barrier to personal safety, 
to the advancement of moral and scientific improvement, and 
the greatest deterioration to the honor and dignity of our 
nation. 

That a liberal literary, moral, and virtuous female educa- 
tion is the only detergent remedy for vice, crime, and immor- 
ality, I shall also prove. That the present condition of 
female society, in point of education, is below the mediocrity 
of man's position in the great scale of humanity, and that 
she is and w^as divinely intended to be co-equal to man, I 
shall also prove, beyond a contradiction. That as touching 
pecuniary rights in point of remuneration for manual labor 
(for such of the female community as do and must ply the 
manipulations of their delicate fingers for a livelihood), are 
not recognized by judicial authority, nor secured by law 
equally to women as they are to men, I shall in due place 
advert to this point. 

With these views in contemplation, I shall fearlessly, and 
untrammeled in mind, lay my thoughts before a discrimi- 
nating public, advocating, as far as in me lies, an equaliza- 
tion of rights to the free and enlightened people of the 
United States of America, and particularly the paramount 
justice of equal educational instruction, and all other advan- 
tages under our glorious Constitution, to the female commu- 
nity, compatible with their sex, and to which their position 
and dignity in the great scale of being so justly entitle them. 

To escape the lash of the pedant and the demagogue, and 
evade the vituperation of the scrutinizing satirist, any more 
than other writers have done before me, I can scarcely 
expect ; but should I fall a victim to my sentiments, in the 
Elysian field of Women's Rights, I shall fall convinced of the 
justice of my cause, breathing on my last respirations the 
justice of the inalienable Rights of Women. 

Investigating these sentiments, then, with due care and 
deliberation, I am happy to subscribe myself the advocate of 
Women's Rights, 

JOSEPH SAYEPvS. 



WOMEN^S RIGHTS. 



The depravity of the world, the degeneracy of the 
times, and the demoralization of the community, have 
ever been found to be conflicting enemies to the social 
happiness of humanity. It is rational then to conclude, 
that these predominant evils must be the unhappy 
results of some unforeseen or long neglected causes. 
The sources from which they flow must be corrupt and 
morbid in themselves, or the torrents which issue from 
them would not be so deplorable in their conse- 
quences. 

That these lamentable evils generate and fructify 
under the penumbral clouds of ignorance, is manifest 
to the investigating mind. 

The wise and enlightened part of our community, 
who denounce these things as derogatory and dan- 
gerous to our safety and well-being, and who have 
power in their hands, should in due time investigate 
those evils and their sources, and adopt such detergent 
means as would eventually eradicate them from our 
happy land, or at least mitigate the velocity of their 

(5) 



6 women's rights. 

career. To effect such a desirable and important 
change in the state of society, requires some time, and 
the combined energy of the enlightened and moral part 
of the community. 

But if efficient measures were adopted, and the basis 
of a literary, moral, and virtuous female education 
universally established, soon, very soon would society 
feel the consoling happiness* of the results, and vice, 
crime, and depravity would disappear before its mighty 
influence. As nothing but a pure, moral, and literary 
education, and a proper training of the mind, can 
enable us to discard vice and denounce crime, so, in 
my opinion, they are the best antidotes against evil 
propensities, and the surest remedies to secure peace, 
safety, and harmony to the people of any nation. 

If a thorough organization of literary, moral, and 
virtuous female education were properly disseminated 
and established throughout our country, soon would 
the cheering beams of the light of instruction irradiate 
our land, soon would its utility and balmy influence be 
felt, and soon, very soon Avould the march of female 
intellect, in literature, in the arts and sciences, and in 
every thing grand and great in their sphere of action, 
extend with electric velocity from state to state, and 
from shore to shore. Then would the state of society 
be improved; then would the march of education 
receive a fresh impulsive pathos; then would the 
sciences extend; then would our glorious and free 



WOMEN'S RIGHTS. 7 

institutions flourish in prosperity, and then would the 
blessings of Heaven descend upon our people. 

When the Eternal and All- wise Creator of all things 
willed that man should become a living soul, He 
endowed him with all the essential requisites whereby 
he could sustain himself in his exalted position above 
all the rest of the creation. It is rational to believe 
that Adam was an emblem of divine perfection, 
emanating as he did from the omnipotent hand of 
Divinity, and made after the image and likeness of 
God Himself. That Adam possessed all the physical 
and mental functions of human organization, it is also 
rational to believe. We have every reason to possess 
the implicit belief, that he was majestic, noble, and 
beautiful, walking upright, superior to all other animals, 
and composed of perfect purity of soul and of body. 
For his greater security and comfort his Almighty 
Maker prepared for him a terrestrial paradise, wherein 
He placed him, and held frequent converse with him. 
In order then to carry into perfection the inscrutable 
will of Almighty God in His divine dispensation, and 
as Adam was destined to be the parent of the human 
family, the Eternal Jehovah seeing him alone and in 
solitude, and wishing to consummate his happiness here 
on earth more fully, willed to give him a consort and 
companion made from himself, " bone of his bone, and 
flesh of his flesh," equal and co-equal with himself — 
two bodies distinct in themselves, but hypostatically 



8 women's rights. 

united in one. " They shall be no longer twain but 
one flesh." And from these two, in accordance to the 
divine ordinance, all the generations of the earth have 
emanated. 

Let it be remembered that these two, Adam and 
Eve, the original parents of the entire human race, are 
no longer twain but one, and whose example the human 
family have followed, and will continue to follow to the 
consummation of time in the union of the sexes, and 
in due concurrence with the divine command in order 
to propagate and perpetuate generation, and that any 
thing tending to deteriorate or elevate one of the sexes, 
tends in the same degree of ratio to afiect the other. 
Hence, then, while I advocate the Rights of Women, 
I by no means depreciate or interfere with men's rights ; 
nay, on the contrary, if my subject has any tendency 
to elevate women in their present position, it must have 
the same bearing on men, since to elevate one is to 
raise the other, and to depreciate one is to sink the 
other. According to a natural philosophical law, if two 
bodies be united, and any intensity of force or power 
be applied to either of the bodies, both must obey and 
go into motion, and according to the ratio of intensity 
applied will the velocity of their motion be. So it is 
with the sexes ; if we elevate one, we must raise both, 
and if one be sunk the other can not rise. To the mind 
of intelligence, this must be conspicuously palpable, 
and every close observer must see, that unless the 



women's rights. 9 

female sex be liberally educated and properly trained 
up in virtue, morality, and literature, the male sex can 
not sustain their position in the scale of existence. 

I have said that Adam was majestic, noble, pure, 
and beautiful, and who can contradict it ? — the handi- 
work of God himself. But if Adam was beautiful, 
I may justly aver that Eve was still more so. From 
the external appearance of both sexes, and making 
a rational comparison, the female sex have justly 
attained the character of being the more fair. It is 
indubitably believed by historians and antiquarians of 
deepest research and celebrity, that in the person of 
Eve were blended all the loveliness, beauty, and 
prepossessing charms that ever woman possessed. 
Unaided by artificial decoration, her fascinating 
qualities — pure as they were delightful to behold — 
were most alluring and irresistible. Her silken hair, 
of the finest hue and texture, rolled artlessly in ring- 
lets over her pellucid neck and shoulders, leaving 
interstices through which the clear surface ap- 
peared whiter than the virgin snow. Her spark- 
ling orbs of vision, clearer than the transparent 
diamond's glow, beamed with expressive intelligence, 
and indicated superior wisdom. Her blooming cheeks 
bore the tint of the freshest blushing roses, and ex- 
celled the hue of the clearest touch of the brilliant 
vermilion. Her ruby lips, transcending the purest 
coral, were bedewed with the nectar of nature's purest 



10 

production. Her teeth, in even rows, excelled the 
clearest polished ivory. Her heavenly voice commu- 
nicated thrilling intelligence to the ear and to the 
heart. Her graceful motion and majestic demeanor 
combined to highten all her other perfections, for 
angelic like she moved. The graces seemed to play 
on her delightful person, and all contributed to con- 
stitute her a living, moving angel — unequaled on this 
side of heaven. 

Well and truly might a stanza of the memorable 
and ingenious Phillips be applied to this consum- 
mate gem of perfection. Yes — 

"She was charming, young, and fair; 
None, none, on earth above her; 
As pure in thought as angels are — 
To see her, was to love her." 

But whilst I, or any other writer, would aim at 
eulogizing Eve, I would say that it would be in vain 
and a waste of time — for all the encomiums which 
the ingenious eloquence of man could lavish on the 
excellence of Eve would not pin one wreath of glory 
on her brow, nor attach one attribute of perfection 
to her consummate, exalted, and intrinsic dignity. 
Nor has any of this transcending superiority of 
external appearance, nor of fascinating beauty and 
loveliness, nor of intrinsic worth and dignity, departed 
from her sex. They have retained them in succession, 
perfect and inviolate, through all the preceding 



women's rights. 11 

generations down to the present time, and will to the 
consummation of the world. We can behold and 
prove this fact by occular demonstration, in a com- 
parison of the sexes, now, as well as heretofore, 
beyond a contradiction. Hence, then, a superiority 
in the external physical organization, in the sympa- 
thetic feelings and affections, and in the gracefulness, 
demeanor, and dignity of humanity, must in justice 
and candor be awarded and allowed to the female 
sex. Also a perfect equality in— every attribute of 
mental organization, in the fineness of perception, in 
the delicacy of touch, and in every function and 
attribute of intellectual and corporeal knowledge, 
reason and understanding, and even a superiority in 
the susceptibility of receiving mental instruction, 
which I will hereafter clearly demonstrate. 

That these things must be seen and known to the 
investigating mind of the discerning thinker, is an 
indubitable fact. But it is, on the other hand, a 
lamentable fact, and as true as it is deplorable, that 
the intrinsic merit of the great faculties and powers 
combined in the physical and mental organization of 
the female sex, do not receive from the male part 
of our species that degree of regard and attention 
due to their worth. I would be here understood that 
they do not receive that due degree of educational 
attention (universally speaking) which would enable 
them to develop those latent powers of intellect 



12 

whereby they could apply them to utility to themselves 
and the world around them. 

Now, as these two illustrious personages, Adam and 
Eve, were endowed with similar mental gifts and 
intellectual powers, the very smallest of which was 
superior in virtue and merit to all bestowed on the 
rest of the creation, we may rationally aver, and we 
have the unerring words of truth for this inference, 
that these beneficent endowments were equal in both 
sexes, and not imperfect in the one more than in the 
other. The most incontrovertible and conspicuous 
demonstrations of this have been manifested in the 
female sex through the long lapse of time, ages, and 
generations, down to the present day. It would be 
egregiously absurd to think that the mind, containing 
the most valuable gifts of God to man, would be 
given to woman for useless purposes, and vague and 
incapable of receiving the necessary instruction. This 
would be preposterous blasphemy against the omnipo- 
tence of God; for, as the Creator of all things made 
nothing in vain, so neither did He, in his beneficent 
wisdom, endow woman with an incapacious mind. 
Nay, on the contrary, I will show beyond a contra- 
diction that, in many cases, and, I believe, in a 
majority of cases, that the mental powers of women 
are not inferior to those of men, but that they are of 
a finer perception, and on many occasions more easily 
instructed and enlightened than are those of men. 



13 

Throughout my familiarity with and an actual 
experience of thirty years in school education, I have 
invariably found the female department of my schools 
to excel in every branch of literature and science 
under investigation — of the same age and under the 
same degree of instruction. Even in mathematics 
and in the classics their progress was better than 
male pupils of similar ages. Females will undoubt- 
edly learn more in the same time, and with less 
instruction, than males will do. I appeal to old and 
experienced teachers for the truth of this assertion, 
which I make paradoxically, that it may be noticed, 
and I am confident of the concurrence of judicious, 
candid men. •' 

The mental perception of females is better, their 
patience under intricate study is better, their attention 
and diligence are much better, and they will arrive 
at the archetype of the idea advanced with less 
elaborate instruction, and in less time than males of 
the same age will do. In difficult investigation, in 
analysis, in composition, in calculation, in grammar, 
logic, or rhetoric, and in every other study, but more 
particularly so in any thing where manual dexterity is 
required, they equal, if they do not surpass, the male 
sex of similar ages in all school institutions. 

In the abstract reflection of this part of my subject, I 
think myself warranted in saying that the female sex 
in the great scale of humanity are as susceptible of 



14 women's rights. 

receiving ample literary education, and in every point 
of congruity regarding the aptitude of taking instruc- 
tion as quick and as well (and in a majority of cases 
more so), as the male part of our species are. Hence, 
then, the great and paramount right which women 
claim is an equality on this essential point. That this 
important right has been denied and neglected in a 
great degree, comparatively speaking of the whole 
female sex, for centuries of time immemorial down to 
the present day, is manifest to all; a circumstance, 
truly, which involves the mysterious theorem, namely, 
whence originates and have originated the amount and 
enormity of vice, crime, and demoralization which have 
delugefl and at present inundates the world, and more 
especially these United States, to the great detriment 
of the interests, peace, personal safety, and prosperity 
of society? 

I will now undertake to demonstrate this mysterious 
problem. Mysterious indeed it may be to some, but to 
me it appears obviously palpable. In the first place, 
female education is in most places and cases limited 
and defective, whereas it should be universal and equal 
if not superior to men's. Why so? Because from 
childhood to maturity the mother has almost entirely 
the responsibility of bringing up and instructing her 
family. 

Comparatively speaking, the children are nine tenths 
of the time in the society and under the immediate 



women's rights. 15 

inspection of the mother. The father is absent, or 
attending to the ordinary avocations of a domestic or 
a public life, and consequently he can not devote his 
time and attention to the instruction, training, and 
bringing up of his family. Hence, then, all this im- 
portant task devolves on the mother, who is ever with 
them, and whose sole care, time, instruction, and solici- 
tude are entirely devoted to their edification, to their 
mental and physical growth and improvement, and to 
every thing that tends to improve, extend, and promote 
their future happiness and well-being. All that 
the mother knows is communicated to the children; 
and often, very often, she is more solicitous to procure 
for her children, male and female, an ample and pure 
education than their father is. What instruction she 
received in her youth they know before they arrive at 
maturity, and had she known more, the entire store 
of her knowledge would have been deposited in the 
minds of her* children. 

This is paramount among the many reasons why 
women should be amply educated; their children would 
be educated too ; and thus, education and its irradiating 
beams of splendor, would extend and enlighten the 
growing youth from generation to generation. Had 
women a proper pure education, virtue, morality, in- 
dustry, and the pure love of God (which are the 
legitimate offsprings of a sound education), would be 
inculcated in their families ; and the hideous monsters, 



16 

sin, vice, crime, and depravity (the anti- Christian 
concomitants of infidelity), would be denounced and 
extirpated from the land. The torrents of vice, fraud, 
burglary, thefts, murders, and crime of impurity, 
Would soon disappear, which now seem to increase and 
generate, and like a pestiferous contagion spread car- 
nage and devastation around, and sadden the aspiring 
hopes of the virtuous and the good. All this is the de- 
leterious result of the neglect of a moral, literary, and 
pure education in the female sex of the present as well 
as the past generation, whereby ignorance, and conse- 
quently the vices have been allowed to extend and 
generate the baneful disease of morbid immorality. 

Nothing can ever eradicate crime and demoralization 
but a true, a pure moral education, and that extended to 
both sexes universally. Behold its happy results on 
individuals, on communities, and on nations, which 
have arisen to eminence, power, and grandeur; whilst 
none devoid of it can rise at all, and just in proportion 
to the ratio of moral and scientific ecmcation possessed 
by an individual, by a community, or by a nation, wili 
that individual, that community, or that nation, rise to, 
or ever arrive at, a climax in the acme of perfection, 
or of eminence in the world. Behold, on the contrary, 
savage nations : they rise, they generate, they wallow, 
and they fall under the penumbral cloud of their own 
depravity. 

According to the present state of demoralization in 



women's rights. 17 

this country, the laws of the land are the only barriers 
against crime ; nothing else is feared, nothing else is 
talked or thought of. If the eye of the law can be 
evaded, immorality, vice, sin, crime, nor a fear of di- 
vine eternal punishment for sin or crime, is ever 
mentioned or contemplated ; not at all. 

The youth of our community talks of crimes of a hori- 
fying nature, even robbery, burglary, arson, and mur- 
der, w^ithout emotion, and ingeniously (the result of 
study) shows how such crimes might be perpetrated 
without detection, and to the utter defiance of the law. 
But never does he once recognize these crimes or any 
of them to be sinful, or in the least degree derogatory 
to the laws or commandments of God, nor does he 
speak of eternal punishment due to sin at all. My 
gentle reader, this is the unhappy result of the want of 
a proper moral education. But he goes on, he talks 
of crime as he would of any thing else without fear, 
without emotion or dread, unless for the laws**of the 
country. He commits crime, even murder, and all that 
is contemplated is a fear of the law. He transacts it 
like any other ordinary business w^ithout remorse, or 
any deterioration from divine vengeance, which the 
oracles of truth assure us does follow sin, and that 
" the wages of sin is death." He studiously cultivates 
a competent knowledge of the use of the knife and the 
revolver, and with these implements of death his person 
is equipped day and night. 
2 



18 women's rights. 

His unfortunate antagonist (often innocent and 
unconscious of danger), he provokes to violate the law ; 
and then, daemon-like, he cuts or shoots him down ; and, 
notwithstanding a murderer in heart, he is acquitted 
by the law, and goes at large again, a living, moving, 
acting fiend. All this is for the want of a moral, pure 
education, and a proper training and bringing up in 
his youth — and with these, and such emissaries of Satan, 
our country is infested. 

It may be said of me in these few sentences on the 
deplorable results of immorality (the legitimate parent 
of crime), that I am too severe, and have run into exag- 
geration, but I deny the charge. I appeal to the 
public statistics for the veracity of these remarks. It 
may also be alleged that the present state of morality 
is not so depraved in the United States as I represent 
it to be. I say it is, and I will prove it. I refer my 
readers, or those who doubt my assertions, to the con- 
scripts of the judicial authorities. There you will find 
the aggregate number of willful murders for the last 
year, ending January 1st, 1855, from thirty States and 
the annexed Territories. The assassinations, convicted, 
tried, and recorded, were 2,775. The lowest number of 
convicts in any State or Territory being 30, and the 
highest 120. Beside this appalling statement, think 
of the number of murders, which, from the nature and 
secresy of their committal, rendered it impossible for 
the lawful authorities to bring the perpetrators to con- 



women's rights. 19 

dign punishment. This is a terrible account of a civil- 
ized country, but no less terrific than it is a lamented 
fact. Beside, there is an incalculable amount of other 
capital and inferior crime which it is entirely out of the 
power of the law to recognize or to prevent. 

Such, then, is the state of our own country, one of 
the happiest and greatest gifted countries on the habit- 
able globe. And this lamentable state of morality 
is not mitigating, but is rapidly on the increase. What 
is this to be attributed to? And what is the true 
remedy ? This is a syllogism in which the validity of 
argument is most conspicuously evident, and which 
involves our very best interests and our most deliberate 
considerations. 

It is palpable that these growing evils must originate 
in the morbid fountains of degraded ignorance; and 
that their sources are in the deep recesses of depravity, 
produced from similar causes, from which the polluted 
torrents of corruption incessantly flow. The true 
remedy for these grievances, therefore, is a universal 
dissemination of pure, literary education, than which 
no other remedy will avail. 

Let the female youth be educated, and trained up fit 
for her sphere of life, and in maturity, and in due time 
will she impart it to her ofispring. Thus education 
will increase, it will extend, it will become universal, 
and its salutary efiects will soon be felt in society. 

When I say education, I would not be understood to 



20 women's rights. 

be confined to a scientific or to a classical education. 
I "would import that a pure, female education should 
embrace not only literature, but virtue, morality, and 
religion combined, and all that is found to be essential 
to the character and dignity of a lady. Of such quali-. 
fications then as the lady possesses, so also will her 
family possess: for a mother conceals none of her 
acquisitions or her qualifications from her children 
•which are calculated to promote their respectability, 
usefulness, and happiness in time and in eternity. That 
remarkable passage in the sacred Scripture is verified 
in this, ^'the tree is known by its fruit, and from 
brambles you can not gather figs," etc. " A good tree 
produceth good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit.'' 

Thus from the w^ant of a proper education on the 
part of the female, generally speaking, the children are 
allowed to grow into maturity untaught and unprepared 
to make an honest or a respectable living for them- 
selves, and consequently they become dangerous mem- 
bers of society. So, in succession, do the lamentable 
evils generate and fructify from one generation to 
another. 

If females were only as well educated as men gene- 
rally are, there would be a very visible change in 
society, in virtue and morality, and in the various 
departments of improvement, etc., connected with their 
sex and station in life ; and the amount of vice and 
crime would be mitigated, if not extirpated; and virtue 



women's rights. 21 

and morality, planted in tlieir place, to the happiness 
and comfort of the present and succeeding generations. 
Soon, very soon, would the torrents of vice be stemmed, 
and soon would society realize the happy results. For 
wherever education, morality, and virtue are planted, 
from thence vice, depravity, and crime must depart. 

The essential and imperative necessity of Women's 
Rights in point of education, and every thing in connec- 
tion with their sex that would tend to promote and 
elevate them in the scale of being, must be obvious to 
all who investigate or review the present state of 
society. It is of intrinsic utility to the world, to man 
as well as woman. For if men wish to sustain or 
elevate themselves, they must sustain and elevate 
women first. When I say Women's Rights, I mean an 
inalienable right of the sex to an equal share of literary 
education with the male sex, comparatively speaking, 
compatible w^ith their respective positions and pecuniary 
circumstances, and a just and fair participation in every 
right and privilege, and in the distribution of every 
right and privilege, pertaining to women in their own 
sphere of action. This would not at all interfere with 
men's rights and privileges and happiness in their 
various vocations of life ; not at all. It, on the 
contrary, would enable women to be the better calcu- 
lated to promote the happiness of men, and conse- 
quently their mutual consolations would be augmented. 
Women, by being properly educated and trained up in 



22 women's rights. 

literary, scientific, and moral studies, would then be the 
co-equal consorts of men, brought up in a similar man- 
ner, and, by course of reason, they would be more 
intelligent and useful to themselves, their husbands, and 
families, and to the circle of society in which they 
moved. They would then be fitted and prepared to 
fill their places in the community with utility, and 
humanity would be advantaged by it. This would not 
only be the means to raise women to dignity and 
usefulness in the scale of being, but it would raise men 
also ; for surely, whatever elevates one sex, elevates 
the other, and whatever depresses one sex, depresses 
the other. * 

It has been said and argued by men that a little 
education was sufficient for a woman. Egregiously 
preposterous and unholy was the saying — the baneful 
results of which embitter the cup of human happiness 
in the present as well as in past generations, and 
will continue to do so to the end of time, as long as 
men hearken to the injustice and absurdity of that 
saying. And never will the torrents of vice, immor- 
ality, and crime, which at present deluge the world, 
be stemmed, until by a general and equal difi'usion of 
a pure elementary, literary, and scientific female 
education. I would ask the advocates of the above 
absurd and wicked sophism, hoTV an educated man 
could properly raise a family from an unlettered 
woman ? They can not answer this query. The avo- 



23 

cations of life and business call this man away from 
home, and he can not attend to the private instruction 
of his family. They grow up to maturity devoid of 
education and the other requisites which parents 
(particularly the mother) should inculcate, because 
the mother did not possess them herself. 

But there is a low, narrow, and contracted, disin- 
genious cunning in the above unhallowed saying, 
which some men use and have used as a pretext for 
not educating the female part of their families, while 
at the same time they lavished money and riches in 
profusion in procuring a liberal education for their 
sons. Now, I would ask the rational parent (father I 
mean) who is blessed with sons and daughters, as 
most of husbands are, which sex of his family 
does he love the better, or which is the nearer of kin 
to him ? He can not tell me. For, as they are all of 
his own flesh and blood, and as he is bound by the 
laws of God and consanguinity to love and nurture 
both sexes of his family, so he must, in obedience to 
these unerring laws, and in point of justice, make 
no distinction. Nay, on the contrary, as the female 
child is the more lovely, and the more delicate part 
of his family, she therefore becomes the more endear- 
ing and the more interesting to him, and demands, 
if any the least distinction can be drawn, the more 
tender care and solicitude of her father. She should 
be cared for as the apple of his eye, as the greatest 



24 women's rights. 

gem of treasure and happiness whicli he could pos- 
sess, and bj neglecting her proper bringing up, he 
unfits her, in all probability, for the great and meri- 
torious office which nature and the God of nature 
destined her to fill. Fathers should think maturely 
how they bring up the female part of their families. 
If they neglect their early training and education, 
they send them into the world to entail misery, not 
only on their own, but on generations yet unborn. 

Yet, with regard to this, notwithstanding the female 
requires the more care and education, still there is 
a distinction made in education, and very often in 
inheritance, too, in favor of the son instead of the 
daughter. The son is amply educated, and at a vast 
amount of expense, at schools and colleges, until he has 
acquired a competent, if not a liberal professional, clas- 
sical education, for fifteen or twenty years ; and the 
lovely and interesting girl, his sister, from the same 
father and the same mother, completes her education 
(and is said to be competent), in some country school 
in a period of three or four years and sometimes less. 
Her talents, and her intellectual faculties, and her 
taste, and all her mental powers are as good, perhaps 
better, than her brother's abilities are, but that un- 
godly, unjust, and irrational saying, which has got to 
be proverbial and almost hereditary, namely, that a 
"little learning is sufficient for a woman," is applied 
and brought to bear upon this amiable, promising, 



25 

and interesting young girl. She probably can read 
and write a little, has some superficial knowledge of 
the language of her country, and but little or no idea 
of figures or calculations, or of any of the advanced 
sciences so essential to be known by all females. 
But when the windo^YS of the depository of her men- 
tal powers had just been opened, and the beams of 
instruction had began to irradiate her intelligent soul, 
and her glowing genius to generate into ideas, then 
was she just snatched from school, and pronounced 
to be educated. A few years elapse, and, according 
to existing circumstances, she becomes a wife and a 
mother. In all probability she gets a husband as 
destitute of learning as she herself is, and they in 
time raise a large family; and, just as they them- 
selves were raised, in an unlettered state, and imbe- 
cility of mind and morals. Thus, by the impious and 
unholy act of not educating and instructing women 
as well as men, or at least properly in their own 
orbit or circle, the morbid inheritance of ignorance 
is entailed on the human family, with all its delete- 
rious results from age to age. 

This lady's brother, whom I have been just de- 
scribing, is now a professional gentleman of rank and 
dignity — a governor, a lawyer, a doctor, a theologian, 
a judge, a senator or congressman. He is making 
a figure in the active and polite world — no doubt 

useful and interesting, and eminently good for himself 
3 



2^ women's eights. 

and for his country; for he was educated so to do, 
and thereby enabled to develop his natural and tal- 
ented genius to the highest utility to himself and the 
"world around him: while his fair sister, no less 
meritorious, and no less susceptible of instruction 
than he was, is now left to remain in ignorance, 
comparatively speaking of their two educations — 
snatched away from school in an embryo state, seven 
or ten years before her brother was, and forever 
shut out from the light of instruction; and in this 
unenlightened state left to raise a family, which she 
has accomplished with the diligence and love of a 
tender mother, but which she was obliged to leave as 
she was left, nominally speaking, without education. 
This is but one case, which I introduce for example, 
out of the many millions of such and similar cases 
extant in the world. How then can ignorance, vice, 
crime, and depravity disappear from among us, when 
men of inteUigence, wealth, and honor, will thus 
neglect the education of the female department of 
their own household — their own family ? Now, I 
would ask the enlightened man of intelligence and of 
justice in heart, did this father do' right toward his 
son and his daughter? Certainly not. He gifted 
one, his son, with the most precious gems and trea- 
sures of the world — education, in all its beauties and 
charms ; and he almost disinherited the other, his 
fairer daughter, of all these precious treasures, and 



women's rights. 27 

« 

this, too, in most of cases, unconsciously, without 
cause or provocation on the part of the female, and 
without the slightest reflection that he had been 
guilty of a wrong, or any act of injustice in his own 
family. But such is the fact; and no less lament- 
able than it is remarkable, that, because ignorance 
has grown into a custom, men will thus wrong the 
female part of their families, and deprive them forever 
of one of the greatest blessings under heaven — a sound, 
a moral, a good education. By this act of negligence 
(for it is negligence more than necessity), in comply- 
ing with the aforesaid blasphemous saying, and not 
properly educating the female youth of our country, 
the hot-beds of ignorance are cultivated and perpetu- 
ated — wherein crime, in all its hideous deformities, is 
engendered and fructifies, to the great deterioration 
of the peace, safety, and happiness of the community 
at large. 

Let it not be understood that I mean that all 
females are uneducated. Not all. There are in the 
United States as well educated and accomplished 
ladies as there are gentlemen, or as there are in the 
world — many of whom are now making a conspicuous 
figure in the field of literature, and proving to the 
world that, when educated, the female sex can ele- 
vate themselves, and will thereby elevate and dignify 
the whole scale of humanity. This is their great and 
just claim — their paramount right, which they are 



28 women's rights. 

justly entitled to, and which no man of justice can 
deny or deprive them of. But what are the few who 
are educated properly in the United States, or in the 
entire civilized word, to the myriads who are in a 
manner almost entirely destitute of education ? Edu- 
cation is not so equally nor universally given to 
female youth as it is given to the male sex. This 
is the first and great right which all women claim 
and ought to have — an equal share or portion of 
education, comporting with their position and circum- 
stances in life. Wherever we find an educated lady, 
her family is educated likewise; and were females 
educated as they ought to be, the dissemination of 
learning and knowledge would become universal. 
Education would have its undisturbed, pure channels 
to flow in from one generation to another; and crime, 
vice, and immorality, would surely disappear. 

A man who is blessed with a family of children 
(for that is one of his primary earthly blessings), is 
bound by every law, divine, human, and natural, to 
raise, educate, and instruct his family equally in every 
regard, compatible with his judgment, pecuniary 
means, and ability, and no more. But in no case is 
he entitled or justifiable, with impunity, to give more 
education or instruction to a male child than to a 
female one, if the female child evince an intellectual 
capacity, and an equal susceptibility of receiving it. 
All require education, and ample instruction, in order 



women's rights. 29 

to fit and prepare them to live in the world, and 
sustain moral society. And I emphatically repeat it, 
that the female requires it as much as the male, and 
more, as far as regards the bringing up of her family, 
and the harmony and well-being of society at large. 
I appeal now to any refined, well educated gentle- 
man of our country, would he wish to take a young 
lady for a wife who was unlearned, or wdio had but a 
very limited education. If for any peculiar motives 
(as is sometimes the case in matrimonial contracts), 
he takes her for a consort in marriage, he will find 
himself sadly disappointed, in point of society and 
intellectual intelligence ; for, notwithstanding she may 
be blessed with a prepossessing appearance, with 
many amiable, kind, and good qualities (which ever 
belong to and adorn the female sex), and with a 
redundancy of affluence, yet she has not been suffi- 
ciently educated and refined to enable her to . develop 
those endowments with which she was gifted by na- 
ture, in an intelligible, polite, and agreeable manner. 
Hence, then, his comfort of sociability in his wife 
(which is not one of the smallest in wedlock), must 
be abandoned forever. His children grow up just as 
she is; for notwithstanding he is educated, it is ut- 
terly impossible for him to communicate to them the 
instruction, by example and otherwise, which it is the 
duty of an educated mother to communicate. He 
(the father) can not stay at home. The avocations of 



30 women's rights. 

life and business call him away, by whicli cause the 
family is neglected in their mental improvement ; and 
unless he be a man of independent affluence, sufficient 
to allow him to employ educated and competent tu- 
tors, or to send his family from home for education 
(which abstracts domestic comforts), his children will 
grow up in ignorance (perhaps in vice), and remain 
so, and in all probability entail it to their posterity, 
all for want of a properly educated mother. 

It is not imperative on me, nor is it essentially 
requisite for me to circumscribe or point out a lady's 
education. Suffice it to say, that the more ample 
and extensive her education be, comporting with a 
lady's sphere of life, the more useful will she be to 
herself, her family, and to society. 

It is manifest from what I have said on this im- 
portant subject, that if women were universally 
educated better than they are at present, and have 
been for generations past, that they would be more 
exalted and more useful than they can be in their 
present state, and that society, and civilization, a,nd 
morality, and every advancement of prosperity in the 
world would be ultimately benefitted by it. 

A lady should be educated to suit the vocation 
which she intends to follow. But should no note or 
account be taken of this point, she should receive 
ample education, moral training, and bringing up, 
and virtuous integrity, and truthful instruction, to 



women's rights. 31 

enable her to impart those delightful attainments to 
posterity, for on this depends the destiny of genera- 
tions yet unborn. 

It is difficult, and, indeed, impossible, for me to point 
out the amount of instruction or education which would 
be necessary and sufficient for every woman ; for this 
must vary with their respective positions in life, with 
their mental powers and tastes, with their pecuniary 
means, and with almost every circumstance connected 
with living. However, for satisfaction to my readers, 
I will abstractedly direct my attention to a few of the 
elementary branches of literature, and such of the 
sciences as, in my opinion, I deem necessary for almost 
every woman to know. 

If an artificer learn any thing pertaining to his trade 
or the arts, it is essential that he should know and 
understand it perfectly, in order to apply it properly 
and to the best utility. So it is in literature ; a super- 
ficial knowledge of any branch is of little or no use. 
Hence, then, whatever a lady may learn or study, let 
her do it perfectly, that she may afterward know how 
to apply it usefully. It is lamentable that in the 
elementary departments of female education, they are 
allowed to advance too rapidly from one branch to 
another, before they have a thorough knowledge of what 
they have passed over. Let this not be the case with 
any one who wishes to procure a sound education. This 
evil in learning is to be attributed more to the inju- 



32 women's eights. 

dicious teacher, than to the pupiL All teachers should 
know well the ability of their pupils, and should fre- 
quently test them on past studies. 

Orthography being the first element of education, it 
is essential to know it perfectly, in order to apply it 
correctly when required. It is the basis of good read- 
ing and correct writing in composition. Crood reading 
is a beautiful, as well as an essential attainment, and 
should be well studied, practiced, and diligently under- 
stood by every female. A perfect knowledge of good 
reading requires much time, instruction from a compe- 
tent teacher, and an unremitting practice and due atten- 
tion of the pupil. To read well is a worthy attainment. 
And when once acquired, the pupil can improve her 
mind by reading better than by any other mode of 
private study. By reading attentively we can put our- 
selves in the possession of the thoughts and minds of 
others ; hence, then, I sincerely recommend it to all 
females wishing to improve their minds. 

Ladies' Penmanship is an acquisition of much intrin- 
sic interest to every female. This should be carefully 
studied, and learned under the instructions of a judicious 
and competent teacher. To write elegantly is beautiful 
in a woman, the attainment of which, merits the best 
attention and careful application of every female youth. 
There are too many miserably poor writers in the world, 
and it is chiefly caused by negligence in the female 
pupil, and the imperfect instructions of the injudicious 



women's eights. 83 

teacher. The angular hand is now the most popular 
and fashionable for ladies. It is the easiest learned, 
and when well executed, constitutes a beautiful style of 
ladies' penmanship. Let it be understood that the limits 
of this treatise will not allow me to detail, at much 
length, the properties, rules, attributes, etc., of every 
scie°nce which I intend to point out as essential to be 
attained by accomplished ladies. This is more the 
duty and the work of the judicious teacher, than of an 

humble writer. 

Arithmetic should be early introduced to the study 
of the young female. She will find this a delightful 
study, and one of the highest importance through life. 
The utility of arithmetic to the world is sufficient to 
recommend it to the study of every one. It is the basis 
of all calculation, scientific, commercial, and artificial, 
and should be well understood by every female. It 
expands the mental powers, and ushers itself into use- 
fulness in every department of life. 

English Grammar should be introduced to the female 
whenever she can read properly. The utility and im- 
portance of English grammar are indispensible to all 
who mean to secure to themselves a proper education. 
In order to communicate our ideas to others, it is essen- 
tial that we should do it in a correct and intelligible 
manner, in order to be correctly understood. Hence, 
then, the indispensible necessity of studying grammar 
perfectly, and applying it correctly. Without a know- 



S4 women's rights. 

ledge of English grammar, we can neither speak nor 
write the language of our country correctly. 

Composition should be next commenced by the young 
female. While progressing with the foregoing studies, 
composition will make a delightful introductory change. 
It is essential for every female to acquire a theoretical 
and practical knowledge of this beautiful and useful 
study. Here she will first find an opportunity to apply 
her grammar. It will expand the powers of her mind, 
and shed a radiance over all she has already learned. 
Composition, to a lady, is of the highest importance, and 
often through life will she rejoice at having made a 
proficiency in the composition of the language of her 
country. 

Whether she be in private, public, or domestic life, 
composition will prove itself to her to be one of the 
most useful and delightful studies of her youth ; and 
should she be endowed with a fruitful and brilliant 
genius, then will the practical knowledge of composition 
open a spacious and inviting field for her to express her 
ideas to the world intelligibly. Without the use of this 
beautiful study, and without receiving the necessary 
instructions when at school, and without bringing it into 
frequent practical application, the genius, the mind, 
the intellectual powers, be they ever so bright and 
clever, are shackled and enveloped forever. Hence, 
then, to every female of any taste and genius, who 
intends to procure- an eligible education, I would most 



women's rights. 35 

earnestly recommend a thorough knowledge and prac- 
tical experience in composition. It is as necessary to 
know how to write our thoughts correctly, as it is to 
know how to articulate, pronounce, and speak our 
thoughts intelligibly. 

When composition in prose is tolerably well under- 
stood, and practiced by the ingenious young female, 
she should then study the laws and rules of versifica- 
tion. If her genius have any poetical powers, she will 
find much delight in the composition of poetry. It is 
the next charm to music, or more properly it is music 
in reality, for it elevates and enlivens the mental 
feelings and the very soul itself. 

Logic should now be introduced, and blend in all its 
beauties and charms with the compositions of the young 
female. Logic contains the doctrine of the science of 
reasoning. Its powers in the languages, and in argu- 
ment, are of intrinsic merit to all, both man and woman. 
When a proposition is made or set forth in any thing, 
it must be illustrated by logic or it will rarely sustain 
itself. Logic is the art of reasoning, and without 
loo;ic we can not reason. 

Rhetoric should be with logic combined. They are 
inseparable companions, and nearly allied to each other. 
These are delightful and interesting studies for ladies 
as well as for gentlemen, and should never be omitted 
from the catalogue of their literary attainments. 

By logic, the proposition is opened, made, and in- 



86 

telligibly introduced to tlie audience or individual 
addressed, and by rhetoric it is made to bear, and drive 
before it all opposition. Logic and rheto7ic then com- 
bine to form one of the most powerful engines which 
any language can constitute. When this engine is 
properly applied to any argument it is overwhelming, 
let the argument be right or wrong. It is by the 
invincible power of these two sister sciences, that all 
orators, public speakers, lawyers, representatives, sena- 
tors, and theologians, carry their arguments and bring 
them to bear. So great, indeed, is the masterly power 
of that great lever, rhetoric, that among the ancients 
it was said to be superstition to study or practice it ; 
but that shallow idea has long since departed from 
the literary worlds 

Geography is a useful, sublime, and important 
science, and may be introduced by the judicious 
teacher at any convenient time, as a concomitant to the 
foregoing studies. 

It is the doctrine of the knowledge of the surface of 
the globe which we inhabit ; and reason must tell us 
that every one, both male and female, should know as 
much about the surface of this earth (the place of our 
being), as possibly can be known. It is a delightful 
study, and will amply satisfy and reward its votar^^. 

Drawing and Painting, and the construction of 
maps should be now, if not before, introduced; and to 
these should be combined the use of the globes. 



87 

These are sublime studies and will beautifully expand 
the mind of the young female. They will strengthen 
it in what she has already acquired, and fit and pre- 
pare it to receive the more advanced and more im- 
portant sciences. 

Botany is a science, but has by some writers been 
called a branch of natural history. It is, no doubt, 
historical in its nature, but it is also scientific. It con- 
tains the doctrine of the science and history of plants, 
vegetables, herbage, etc., from the smallest spear of 
grass to the towering oak that crowns the mountain's 
brow. It furnishes one of the most delightful and 
essential studies to the young female mind. That it is 
delightful in all its departments, can not be questioned ; 
and that it is essential and important in all its bearings 
and tendencies, reason must infer, since on the vegeta- 
tion and productions of the earth (which is the province 
of this science to investigate) our sustenance, our safety, 
and our lives depend. 

There are about nineteen-twentieths of the cooks of 
the United States, and, probably, of all the world, 
females ; hence, then, the imperative necessity of a per- 
fect familiarity of the female sex with the science of 
botany. On the knowledge of botany depends much, 
very much of the personal safety and support on which 
our lives depend. Then, again, what can be more 
lovely and agreeable to the tasteful genius and investi- 
gating mind of a female, than to acquire and possess a 



38 women's rights. 

knowledge of the flowers, the plants, and the verdant 
herbage which decorate the earth's surface ? 

Chemistry should to botany be joined; as by the aid 
of chemistry those plants and herbs already known by 
botany can be analyzed, and their natural substances 
discovered to be either of useful or of poisonous effects. 
By a knowledge of these two sciences all vegetation 
can be analyzed, etc. 

Chemistry ranks among the most sublime sciences 
of the world. By it we are enabled to discover the 
component parts of all material matter, even from 
the simplest on the earth's surface to the hardest 
rock or metallic substance contained in the bowels 
of the earth. It is of vital importance to man in all 
the manufacturing departments of life. There is 
scarce an operation pertaining to any manufactory 
where caloric, liquid, or steam is requisite, but chem- 
istry is applied. It is a most interesting study for 
ladies. 

Cookery should be studied before or after botany, 
and, if convenient, before chemistry. This is an 
essential study for all females to be familiar with, 
and should be made a school study. The art of 
cookery should be taught in every school, as any 
other art or science, and should be read in common, 
as any other book, in every house. But it is a 
lamentable fact, that these books, viz., cookery, 
chemistry, and botany, are not found in every house, 



women's rights. 39 

nor in every school, particularly in the interior of 
the country. Cooking, like farming, is accomplished 
and learned from and by example, more than by 
scientific principles; and hence the many thrilling 
accounts of death by accident from eating vegetation, 
and vegetable roots, containing poison sufficient to 
destroy human life. If these important sciences were 
studied at school, and reduced to practical operation 
at home, under the superintendence of an educated 
and judicious mistress, or mother, few, if any such, 
accidents would transpire to be recorded. 

Philosophy is the next study, but might be intro- 
duced to the young female before chemistry. It 
ranks among the sublime and most important sciences, 
and will open a beautiful and expansive field for the 
young female aspirant. Its doctrine is to investigate 
all material substances, and even some things which 
are imponderable. From the smallest atom to the 
greatest mass composing the earth — all matter, mo- 
tion, force, intensity, velocity, attraction, gravity, 
electricity, galvanism, hydraulics, hydrostatics, pneu- 
matics, accoustics, optics, caloric, cold, winds, tides, 
etc., all are investigated by philosophy — also, all 
mechanics, engines, and machinery. 

Formerly this grand and great study was but little 
known, but now it is common in every school, and 
should be used, read, and studied in every family. 
Like other sublime sciences, it was confined to the 



40 women's rights. 

walls of colleges, and none could attain it but the 
opulent and wealthy. But since the impetus given 
to education in these United States, by the estab- 
lishment of schools, and the consolidation of a school- 
fund, which tend to disseminate education universally, 
philosophy, and many of the other sciences, have 
reached the common schools, and the domicil of the 
humble farmer and mechanic. 

I most earnestly recommend the study of this 
science to all females. It will expand the mental 
organization, and amply reward all the time and 
pains given to it in the attainment. 

Astronomy being the next grand science in pursuit, 
it is worthy all the attention that the young female 
can bestow upon it. It is one of the most sublime 
sciences — than which a more delightful field was never 
opened to the investigating mind. It may be said, 
indeed, that females have no need of the knowledge 
of this study. Why not? Is this science beyond 
their capacity to understand? Certainly not. Well, 
then, why withhold it? I say, a lady should know 
it, and it should be taught in all female institutions. 
It expands the mind, and enables it to comprehend, 
in the solar system, the immutable laws of omnipo- 
tence, and the inscrutable power of an eternal Jeho- 
vah. By this great science we are enabled to soar 
into the starry heavens, and there range, expatiate, 
and ruminate among the moons, the satellites, the 



women's rights. 41 

constellations, and the planetary organizations which 
compose the solar system. And there we behold our 
own nothingness, and conspicuously see and adore 
the eternal and infinite Deity. If the question dare 
be put to require a proof for the eternal existence of 
God, let the curious investigator look into the solar 
system, and there he will be satisfied when he finds 
himself lost among the stupendous works of the 
Almighty, and there palpably views his own insigni- 
ficance. 

Astronomy is of vital importance to the world. 
By it the periodical changes have been accurately 
discovered, the times of the revolutions of the heav- 
enly bodies, the periodical influences which those 
bodies have upon the earth, the true longitude at 
sea, and many, very many, important events and 
discoveries have been brought to light, and reduced 
to practical utility, by astronomy — all of which tend 
to promote the happiness and convenience of the 
human family. How consoling it is to the benighted 
mariner, when, after a violent storm at sea, he can, 
by taking an observation of the sun, moon, or some 
of the fixed stars, find accurately, by a simple calcu- 
lation, the true longitude — whereby he will be enabled 
to tell the distance made good, the latitude he is in, 
and the distance he yet has to sail to reach his 
destined haven. 

On the skill of this mariner, remember, depend the 
4 



42 women's rights. 

many valuable lives on board — his own life, and mucli 
goods and merchandise, all of which would be inevitably 
ingulfed in the deep, were it not for the skillful applica- 
tion of these grand discoveries, and the knowledge of 
that sublime science, navigation. Since a knowledge 
of these sublime sciences is useful and edifying to the 
mind of a man, why not consolatory and edifying to the 
mind of a woman? I admit that a woman can not, 
nor does she wish to, become a mariner, nor an ope- 
rative astronomer; these things are out of her sphere 
of action ; but, notwithstanding, she could very well 
acquire a competent knowledge of the science of 
astronomy, or any other science, which would enable 
her to teach them to others, and be the means of 
disseminating knowledge, while it would console, expand, 
and elevate her own mind. With these few remarks 
on astronomy, I would earnestly recommend it to the 
female sex, as being one of the most sublime and 
delightful studies for both male and female. 

Mathematics next presents itself to the inquisitive 
student. Although most of the sciences of which I 
have been treating are derived from mathematics, yet 
after those sciences have been studied, Euclid^ s Math- 
ematics should be carefully investigated. In ages gone 
by, mathematics was said to contain all that was neces- 
sary for man to know with regard to quantity, number, 
and magnitude ; but the science of natural philosophy, 
being reduced to practical utility, is found to contain 



women's rights. 43 

(with regard to mechanics, matter, and motion), equally 
as much important usefulness as mathematics. There 
are many other branches of polite, domestic, and 
literary education with which the accomplished female 
should be familiar, in accordance to the vocation of 
life she intends to pursue. These she will easily 
discover, such as belles-lettres, needle-work, etc. There 
are some of the sciences which I did not deem fit to 
recommend to the study of the young female, being out 
of their sphere of action. Of such is navigation, sur- 
veying, guaging, mensuration. The knowledge of 
mathematics, however, I most earnest recommend to 
the study of young females, whether they may intend 
to pursue teaching in future life, or any other avocation. 
There is no science better calculated to expand and 
strengthen the mental organization than is the mathe- 
matics. As most of the other sciences have their 
origin in, and are derived from, mathematical origin, 
the study of Euclid throughout, will very much assist 
and strengthen the young pupil. 

Classics next falls under the consideration of the 
young female student. Notwithstanding the aspiring 
young lady may have taken a regular course of English 
and scientific education, yet to accomplish an ample and 
liberal attainment of knowledge, she must give her 
attention now to the classics — Latin, Erench, Greek, 
etc., or such other language as she may, or her parents 
or guardians may deem most useful to her in future life, 



44 women's rights. 

in due accordance with position in society, and position 
of locality. If she intend to pursue the profession of 
teaching, she should by all means acquire a knowledge 
of one or more languages beside the English. I speak 
here with regard to the female youth of the United 
States, whose established language is the English. 

Some precipitate thinkers may here remark that the 
course I have been describing for the young female, 
embraces too much, or more than is necessary for the 
education of a female ; but I would reply to such thus : 
I admit that many ladies of merit and dignity have not 
probably learned all that I have pointed out, and many, 
very many, have learned more ; but the young lady who 
has received such an education, or even less, combined 
with morality, integrity, and virtue, whether in private 
or in public life, can, and in all probability will, elevate 
herself in society, make herself useful to the community 
around her, and transmit her education to her posterity 
to be entailed on generations yet unborn. The unedu- 
cated female must remain in her present position in the 
scale of being, let that be wherever her destiny has 
placed her. 

That the dissemination of literary and moral educa- 
tion for both male and female throughout these United 
States should be universal and co-equal, I have already 
mooted; and the great obstacle to be surmounted in 
this regard, is the want of properly organized female 
schools and colleges in this country, and the over- 



women's rights. 45 

looking or misunderstanding of the State Legislatures 
and Congress in not propagating and establishing such 
schools. The reader may probably reply to me that 
these honorable bodies have done their duty in estab- 
lishing colleges and free-schools for universal educa- 
tional purposes throughout the Union, open to both 
sexes. True, they have done a laudable and honorable 
work to themselves and to their country in establishing 
free-schools and raising a school-fund, and have opened 
the doors to all, to the female as well as to the male 
youth of our country. This is laudable and praise- 
worthy, and never did education advance in this or in 
any other country with more rapid velocity than it has 
done here since its recognition and establishment by 
legal authority. Its ample strides toward the acme 
of perfection, and its unparalleled progression, now 
stand up as a mirror to the civilized world. 

And what are the happy results of this development 
of literature? It is the present enjoyment of all that 
is great and good to constitute the well-being and 
comforts of a free people. By the development of 
education, the Arts and Sciences have been cultivated 
among us ; commerce has extended from shore to shore ; 
the country has been enlarged and preserved in tran- 
quillity, and riches and happiness abound. These 
blessings and their concomitant comforts are the happy 
results of education. 

But, to return to our city schools : they do not 



46 WOMEN^S RIGHTS. 

constitute institutions fit and proper for tlie female 
youth to receive a sound moral, virtuous, and ample 
education. It is true, a female might receive the rudi- 
mental or elementary part of her education in a city 
school, but no lady ever received a complete education 
in one of these schools. There are many things 
pertaining to a lady's education which are not taught 
in those schools at all. It is preposterous to think, or 
say, that a lady could acquire or complete her education 
in such a place. I have taught and conducted some of 
those schools, and I approve of them as far as they 
justly merit; but they are not the places properly 
adapted to give a female a pure moral, virtuous, and 
ample education. 

The Legislature of the United States is to be lauded 
for what it has done for the universal advancement of 
learning, but the work is only in its embryo, it wants 
a perfect carrying-out or completion, in order to make 
it applicable to the female sex and of universal utility. 
These schools were established and thrown open for the 
education of both sexes of the youth of our country. 
This was egregiously wrong. In whatever city, town, 
village, hamlet, or district, a free school has been estab- 
lished for the reception of both sexes, there should 
have been one established exclusively for female edu- 
cation, recognized by law, and conducted by a female 
principal and female assistant teachers. In whatever 
city, town, etc., there has been a number of free-schools 



women's rights. 47 

organized for the reception of both sexes, one-half of 
these in number should have been ordained for female 
education exclusively, and by no means should the 
sexes be allowed to commingle together in city or in 
any other schools. As there are as many female youth 
numerically speai^ing, as there are males, there should 
be as many female institutions by law established and 
sustained by the school-fund, as there are male institu- 
tions sustained by that fund. Such institutions should 
be propagated and established by law throughout the 
extent of the United States, which is not the case. I 
know there are many excellent female institutions of 
learning in the United States, but these are principally 
supported by their constituents, and by private individual 
contract. Those parents and guardians who will not 
allow their daughters, or those under their care to enter 
a city school, must and do sustain those female literary 
institutions at an enormous expense for board and 
tuition, without any aid whatever from the school-fund. 
This is a grievance of no small magnitude. A man 
may send his sons free to the city schools and receive 
a free education, let him be rich or poor; but his 
daughters, in order to secure to them a pure moral and 
literary education, he is obliged to send to some female 
institution (perhaps some hundreds of miles distant, 
if he live in the interior of the country), and sustain 
them from his own pecuniary means. This can be 
accomplished by the rich, but the poor man's daughter 



48 women's rights. 

must grow up into maturity without education, unless 
at the hazard of endangering both morality and virtue. 
I might here expatiate and use language on this part 
of my treatise, which I will evade. Suffice it to say, 
that a pure and appropriate female education can be 
acquired only at a pure female institution, established 
and solely conducted for the purpose of female 
instruction. 

Female principals and teachers of schools should be 
procured, and preparatory schools for properly educa- 
ting them in every branch of literature pertaining to 
a female education. In such schools the aspiring 
female youth, wishing to become teachers would 
thoroughly graduate, and fit, and prepare themselves 
competently to teach their own sex. In this way, 
female education would soon be promoted; it would 
receive a fresh impetus at every succeeding period and 
session, and its salutary influence would soon be a 
blessing to society. 

There are many, very many females now of high 
rank and dignity, who are acquiring a liberal education, 
but not at the expense of the State or the common- 
wealth, not at all ; it is at the immediate expense of 
their parents, or out of their own pecuniary means. 
But what of the myriads of female youth in the interior, 
who are not able to avail themselves of this advantage ? 
They must either go without education or go into the 
district amalgamated schools. In this regard, female 



49 

education, the indubitable right of the female^ is either 
ill-gotten, lost, or neglected. These things ought not 
so to be. 

The inalienable right of a female to an equal share 
of education, is palpably plain and just, but in this 
respect the female youth of our country are not fairly 
dealt with, by the legislature of the commonwealth. 
The pride, the glory of our country (and every country) 
is neglected. The consort to man and his co-equal, 
the mother of humanity, is left in the shade, in ac- 
cordance to the old adage, as false as it is wicked 
and absurd, namely, " that a little learning is suffi- 
cient for a woman:" a saying which has proved itself 
to be one of the greatest curses which humanity is 
enduring. 

This subject has lain dormant for centuries, and the 
consequent evils still germinating. From age to age, 
from generation to generation, the deletereous effects 
of this unhallowed saying have been transmitted down 
to the present time. 

I must admit and acknowledge that this is a difficult 
subject to discuss, as many will say in contradiction to 
my statements, that the matters as regards women are 
perfectly right ; but I must deny it. I think I have 
explicitly shown and clearly demonstrated the sources 
from which vice, crime, and immorality flow, to the 
great detriment of social happiness and safety, and 
palpably proved them to be engendered in the 
5 



50 

morbidity of ignorance, through the neglect of a pure 
female education. 

Men of talent and ability ; ladies of learning, dignity, 
and influence, and all who are deeply interested in the 
peace and happiness of society, and the extirpation of 
crime, vice, and depravity from the land, and all who 
wish the advancement of education and its consequent 
happy results on the rising and succeeding generations, 
should discuss the matter maturely, agitate, publish, 
and fulminate the reverberations of the acclamated 
rights of women, into the ears and understandings of 
the various State Legislatures, and Congress, pro- 
claiming and demanding a bill to be brought into that 
honorable House, and passed, and ratified, securing to 
TYomen their just and equal rights and privileges with 
the male part of the community, in every thing pertain- 
ing to their sex and station. 

This procedure should be commenced by petition, 
from the various cities, towns, etc., in the various 
States of the Union, to their State Legislatures, and 
transmitted from them to the representatives in Con- 
gress, who would immedately embody them in a bill 
comprising all the demands and wishes of the petitions. 
This bill properly conducted and advocated, would get 
a hearing, and the rights of women would no longer be 
denied them. 

This would not only elevate women in the scale of 
being, but it would elevate man also. If this or some 



women's rights. .51 

otlier measures were adopted, and the united voices of 
the influential and dignified ladies of the United States 
come before the honorable Congress, their just de- 
mands would be freely granted, the bill would pass 
triumphantly into a law, and the present position of 
women would soon wear another aspect. Ample pro- 
vision would be made for the education of thousands of 
our beautiful and interesting female youth, who are 
now obliged to attend the amalgamated city schools, or 
grow into maturity unlettered and untaught. The 
aspiring genius of talented young ladies would lead 
them on to be teachers, and principals of colleges, and 
female institutions of literary character and dignified 
celebrity ; and the whole of female education would be 
taught and acquired within the precincts of female 
jurisdiction. 

This is the way that female education should be 
acquired. This is the way that female merit should be 
elevated and appreciated, and the very sure way that 
pure, moral, and literary female education can be 
attained ; and the way that religion and virtue (those 
darling gems which constitute the female character) 
would be sustained in purity, and transmitted un- 
sullied to posterity. 

By an active and ingenious organization of female 
institutions, recognized and sustained by the govern- 
ment of the country, the phalanx of humanity, male 
and female, would be elevated and enlightened; the 



52 

dissemination of knowledge would be accelerated, and 
societies and communities would rejoice and congratu- 
late the prosperity of each other. If this, or such a 
bill were introduced to the House even for educational 
purposes alone (which is indispensably necessary), 
other amendments would follow and be annexed to the 
bill, granting and securing to women their just and 
lawful demands. It may be asked here what more 
rights do w^omen want ? They do want more ; for 
notwithstanding the right of equal education is para- 
mount, they want and are justly entitled to an equal 
distribution of all and every privilege, and remunera- 
tion for manual labor, etc., comparatively speaking 
with men ; still in due compatibility with their sex and 
sphere of action, and not otherwise. If women were 
universally educated, they would then know their 
rights and what to demand; but at the present day, 
in the enlightened age of the nineteenth century (a 
lamentable fact, and as true as it is lamentable), it is 
only a minority of women who know their rights. In 
the various points and modes of manufacture, have 
women their rights? Certainly not. Witness the 
amount of manufacture made and executed by women ; 
but this is almost impossible to be calculated, for, 
comparatively speaking of the finest manufacture of 
all kinds of merchandise in this, as well as other 
countries, they are almost exclusively accomplished 
and executed by the manipulations of the delicate 



women's rights. 53 

female's plastic fingers. The silk, the muslin, the 
edging, the lace, the lawn, the hosiery, the gloves, and 
almost the entire of male and female attire, emanate 
from the labor and industry of the patient and in- 
genious female. Wherever fineness, taste, and deli- 
cacy of texture are recjuired in the manufacture of 
goods, there must women be; but in no position of 
business or labor is she remunerated equal to man. 
Notwithstanding her performance and execution of the 
manufacture may be superior to man's (which is often 
the case), yet pecuniary remuneration will be less, 
both in the manufacturing and in the making depart- 
ment. Is this an equal distribution of rights? Cer- 
tainly not, yet it is a very fact. 

A tailor will pay a man double, or perhaps more 
than double, the sum he will pay to a woman for 
making the same kind of garment, and sell the 
female's make to the customer at the same price he 
w^ill sell the man's make. Here he enriches himself 
at the expense of the depression of the female's 
labor, and thereby monopolizes on the rights of wo- 
men. 

And so of all other mechanics who manufacture 
fancy and fine goods. In many, very many kinds 
of fine manufacture, the female can excel the man 
in the execution thereof — yet, in no instance, will 
she be remunerated equally. This is a sophism 
which has been practiced time immemorial on the 



54 

rights of women, as unjust as it is disgraceful to 
man; but it is often met with a false logic, namely, 
that women do not execute the work as well as men do. 
If this be true, why employ women at all? It is 
not generally so ; for, as I have said, in many in- 
stances, particularly in fine manufacture, they execute 
the work better than men do. But in no instance 
do they receive the same remuneration. Glaring 
injustice to man's co-equal ! Why not the law of the 
land regulate this imposition of man's ignoble chi- 
canery on the rights of women, and if she execute 
work the same as a man, why not entitle her to a 
similar remuneration ? But the law is dormant on 
this important subject, while the flower and the 
vitality of the country must and do suffer. 

How, then, is this sad grievance to the female sex 
to be remedied? By a due organization of every 
right, pertaining to w^omen, being made and recog- 
nized by judicial authority, and by having the same 
ratified by law — which would entitle women to de- 
mand the same remuneration for all kinds of manual 
labor as men do. 

It will be probably said that on this condition 
women will not be employed. This can not be the 
case, for the amount requisite of manufacture must 
be done and executed, and there is not male labor 
sufficient to accomplish it. Hence women must be 
employed in the various departments of manufacture 



women's rights. 55 

which are best adapted to their sex and manual 
dexterity. 

There is another grievance of no small magnitude 
which women labor under, namely, they are disfran- 
chised by law from voting at all kinds of elections. 
The widowed lady or the unmarried lady is bound 
hj the law to pay taxes if she possesses property, 
and disfranchised, by the same law, from having a 
voice in sending a candidate to the legislature, or a 
representative to Congress, to legislate and make this 
law. This is preposterous injustice ! Here are two 
conflicting opposites, and must involve an error. 
There are very many ladies in our country of supe- 
rior judgment and mental abilities to men who vote. 
There are many possessed of education, riches, and 
honor, and very many as capable of giving a vote 
on judicial or other important matters, as men are, 
and yet all are simultaneously excluded! All are 
universally disfranchised! I can not see the impro- 
priety or iniquity of a qualified lady giving a vote. 
It may be argued that it is unbecoming for the sex, 
and moves a lady out of her proper orbit. This is 
palpable nonsense, which all rational men and women 
will discard. A lady may with the same propriety 
vote that she will transact any other private or pub- 
lic business. And should the act of voting publicly 
be objectionable to either sex, a more appropriate 
mode could very easily be adopted: that is, let there 



56 women's rights. 

be females selected and qualified to receive votes, in 
fit and proper places, apart from the polls of men ; 
and thus, in due accordance to this adaptation, could 
the entire female sufi'rage be obtained, to the great 
satisfaction and just entitlement of the whole female 
population. This would not at all be making any 
inroads on the rights of men. It would verily be 
an equal distribution of justice to all, as far as re- 
gards the matter in question. 

Let it be remembered that, notwithstanding I have, 
on the foregoing page, advocated the right of women 
voting at' elections, yet it is not among their claims 
or demands. They want to have no interference with 
governmental affairs whatever. 

With regard to what women do claim, they must 
bring the matter to issue themselves. Let them 
agitate, and send into the State Legislatures and into 
Congress, their claims, embodied in petitions, from 
every State and Territory, and their demands will 
obtain a hearing, and yet be granted. Their griev- 
ances will be ameliorated, and they will triumph in 
the achievement of one of the greatest blessings that 
ever humanity enjoyed — that is, equality, freedom, 
and inalienable rights to all. Generations yet unborn 
would hail the achievement, and its vital advantages 
to both sexes wouldv. be experienced and lauded in 
the present age. Literary and scientific institutions, 
as if by magic, would grow up. Females would be 



women's eights. 57 

active, vigilant, and persevering (as they are ever 
found to be), in tlie various departments of society, 
and the beneficence of Providence would crown their 
labors with success. That women would be not only 
more useful to themselves, but to man also, by being 
equally educated with man, and by enjoying equal 
advantages and privileges in the general scale of 
beings, is an axiom which needs no demonstration. 
Throughout all the ramifications of society, wherever 
woman's labor, industry, rights, and authority to 
rights, have to compete with man's claims, their 
equality is despised, their rights are trampled on, 
and their labor and industry are always taken in the 
minimum ratio of estimation or comparison. Thus 
their inalienable claims are made to dwindle into 
insignificance. 

Those grievances of which I have been treating are 
not of recent origin. They have been engendered 
centuries ago — first in savage and barbarous nations — 
they migrated from Asia and Africa into Germany, from 
thence to England, and from England to the continent of 
America. And now, at the present enlightened climax 
of society in the United States, it has almost become 
proverbial that a little education is sufficient for a 
woman. This unhallowed expression was and is the 
fountain from whence female degradation flowed, and 
continues to flow, and from whence degeneracy con- 
tinues to inundate the great western continent. When 



58 

shut out from the light of instruction (at least from a 
liberal education), comparatively speaking, the female 
sex and their succeeding offspring must live, grow up, 
and wallow under the penumbral cloud of morbid 
ignorance. This may meet with opposition from the 
precipitate thinker, and probably be sneered at by 
the pedantic demagogue, who would scout the poly- 
carp, that a woman should receive as much education 
as a man, or have any voice in public matters of 
business, commerce, etc., whatever. But I care not 
for that. I can and will sustain the argument, based 
as it is on justice and on truth, on utility, and on 
the universal good of man as well as of woman. So 
long as woman must remain in her untutored state, 
she can have no voice or influence in matters of 
general and public good, because she is thereby 
rendered unable to develop her genius, or reduce her 
clearest ideas to operative utility. But let woman 
be amply and equally educated with man, and then, 
if she do not act herself, she will at least assist him, 
in all and every the intricate matters as touching 
the importance of the commonwealth and domestic 
happiness. 

There are two grand spheres in the great scale of 
humanity : one, in which the woman circles smoothly ; 
and the other, which is alloted to man. Nor is the 
female less tenacious to keep her orbit than the man 
is. As the law of universal gravitation directs and 



women's rights. 59 

controls all unorganized matter, so does the law of 
mental capability and pbj^sical power control and 
govern woman in her sphere of life, destined to what- 
ever it may be. The law of nature, in not being 
bestowed upon woman in point of physical power to 
a similar degree with man, is no criterion to judge 
of the mental organization ; neither can it be con- 
sidered any inimical favor of endow^ment in the 
beneficence of Divine Providence, who, in his inscru- 
table wisdom, suited both sexes perfectly to their 
respective spheres of action. While he endowed man 
with a degree of superior muscular power, in due 
accordance to his particular avocation of life, he was 
no less beneficent to the woman, in best-owing upon 
her a superlative degree of personal beauty, a pre- 
possessing external appearance, a finer symmetry of 
organic system, a clearer perceptibility of mind, a 
nicer acuteness of feeling and touch, a superior 
capacity and adaptation of taste, a higher degree of 
sympathy and afi*ection, a greater love of morality 
and virtue, and, in fine, a super-excellency in all the 
traits and attributes of personal and mental faculties 
which constitute the human character. 

Notwithstanding, it is conspicuously evident that 
woman was not destined to fill man's place in the 
scale of being ; but it is egregiously preposterous to 
think, or to say, that woman is inferior to man in 
point of excellence in either body or mind. While 



60 women's rights. 

man is made and endowed with qualities which enable 
him to brave the danger, and endure fatigue, woman, 
his faithful consort, is endowed with fascinating 
charms, and a prolific genius, which enable her to 
cheer and sustain him, and change the worst adversity 
in life into a tranquil, sheltered covert. 

The intricate cogitations of study, the elaborate 
struggles, and combats of external duties, and the 
various avocations of employment, seem to be the fitly 
destined province of the male part of our species, 
w^hile the precincts of domiciliary ministrations, and 
the all important duty of promoting generation, fall to 
the lot of the female sex. But, on the other hand, 
because a women is not destined, nor equivalent to 
perform in the elaborate sphere of action as man does, 
is she not destined for as noble, yes and more noble 
purposes? Most assuredly she is. Is she, because 
her organic system, her lovely person, is more delicately 
formed than man's, is she not to be educated and 
trained up, and cultivated in order that she may be 
enabled to develop those latent powers of genius and 
mind, which will undoubtedly make her more useful 
to herself and to succeeding generations? Are her 
faculties (which are equal, and in some cases superior 
to man's) to lie dormant for life, and entail on pos- 
terity the same misery as she is now doomed to en- 
dure ? Is her genial spirit to bloom only for a moment, 
and never to be invigorated by the light of instruction, 



women's rights. 61 

the only sure mode of adapting it to useful requisi- 
tions? In due accordance to the mental abilities of 
the mother who rules the domicil establishment, will 
its inmates be. If she be educated, mild, moral, 
virtuous, truthful, and benevolent, they will be so too. 
If she be desperately wicked and uncultivated, they 
will be demoniac in all their actions, and poison the 
atmosphere of domestic happiness, spreading the bane- 
ful contagion as far as their influence will extend. 
Seeing then that the woman is the main lever, of not 
only her own household, but extending to the sur- 
rounding community, and perpetuating her example 
to ages yet unborn, how essential it is, that she^ the 
presiding angel of domestic and public happiness, or 
the daemon of carnage to social consolation and weal, 
should as far as possible be made a fit and proper in- 
strument for so important a design ; a design on which 
the present and future destiny of humanity entirely 
depends. 

That women is the acting and presiding angel in 
her domicil, is an incontrovertible fact, as is manifest 
in her domestic principality, which either presents a 
scene of order, or of chaos, of beauty, or of deformity, 
in accordance as she is enlighted and elevated, or 
obdurate and ignoble. Who, then, can question or dis- 
pute women's influence in the great scale of being, 
when it is so palpably conspicuous in every dwelling 
which is blessed with a female principal ; when it is 



62 women's eights. 

equally obvious in public as well as in private life. 
We see in every grade of existence, from the monarch 
to the humblest servant: even in silence and unseen, 
do the wisdom and influence of a woman modify the 
character and dignity of her hus,band, and often, very 
often through life, does she prove to be to him the 
gr'^atest protection, and the strongest barrier in his 
way to vice. Her counsel to liim is the balm of 
Gilead, and truly should she be reckoned in the words 
of Solomon, " a virtuous women is a crown to her 
husband." Her very breathings are inhaled by her 
childi-en, and whatever she be for good or for evil, 
they permanently will grow up and become. Educa- 
tion, then, is the important point at issue, that the 
rising youth may recicve it and become useful mem- 
bers of society. Education, in order to become valua- 
ble, should become appropriate and universal. 

Throughout all ranks and divisions of community, 
and the entire organization of humanity, we every 
where find (but in a peculiar degree in the civilized 
circles of society), that woman is fitted and gifted by 
nature and the God of nature, to fill her place in the 
most important, as well as in the most trivial depart- 
ments in which she may be destined to act; and 
peculiarly gifted, by the beneficent Creator, with the 
most beautiful and delicate gems of character. 

Hence, her training and education, then, should 
be in accordance to the importance of her position 



women's eights. 63 

in the scale of beings, which, I must say, is not only 
equal to, but paramount of all others. Her education 
should be such at least, as to render her happy to 
herself, to be of utility to society, and fit her for all 
the practical, domestic, and public duties devolving 
upon her, and Tvhich she is in a high degree com- 
pelled to discharge through life. 

It is a lamentable fact, and as true as it is lamen- 
table, that the female youth of our glorious, free, and 
independent country (with but few exceptions, com- 
paratively speaking of the entire community), grow 
up without a sufficient degree of attention being given 
their mental or their physical development. Their 
minds, although ever so susceptible of instruction, are 
generally undisciplined with the study of any useful 
or scientific subject, sufficiently long enough to make 
them thoroughly acquainted with it. Those brilliant 
powers of intellectual understanding are seldom or 
ever excited, or brought into intense or vigorous 
action; and those finer tendencies and refined taste 
and feelings of the female sex peculiar to themselves, 
which, if properly instructed and kept in reserve, 
would most powerfully aid the noblest acquisition, are 
for the most part neglected or called forth at the 
expense of every other. 

Thus, nominally speaking, the solidity of profound 
female education is lost, and the mind is filled with 
the mere ephemeral transitions of the day. What 



64 women's rights. 

hope, then, in such a case, has a husband, or what 
implicit confidence can he have in such an one for a 
wife, whose affections he must philosophically judge 
to be as slight and as frail as the superficial frame- 
work of her mental attainment ? What alluring or 
captivating inducements, or more explicitly speaking, 
what intrinsic qualifications does she possess to enable 
her to undertake the high and all important respon- 
sibility of a mother? How can she think to sustain 
herself in society, so as to embellish and improve it, 
and elevate herself and famjly in that degree of dig- 
nity to which they may be ^entitled ? 

So far as her influence extends (if she be entirely 
uneducated), she becomes dangerous and injurious to 
society, and entails to the community in which she 
circles the baneful inheritance of vice and depravity. 
This germ of demoralization does not become extinct 
at the dissolution of its progenitor, not at all; it is 
engendered and will fructify, and cloud the prospects 
of ages yet unborn. Why thus is an uneducated 
mother so dangerous, when, in all probability, she is 
blessed and gifted with the best of mental faculties? 
Because her mind, from the neglect of a due youthful 
education, literary, moral, and virtuous, has become 
barren, sterile, and obdurate, yielding nothing but 
a hidious wilderness of brambles, which, torpedo-like, 
withers all that comes beneath its influence. The 
society of her own domicil will never sustain a 



women's rights. 65 

standard, but one as low and degraded as that of its 
unhappy directress. Such an one lives but to die, 
and when removed from the world, no traces can be 
seen on her neglected path, but such as stigmatize 
her existence, and blush her progeny. Her con- 
tracted life is like the transient arrow which leaves 
no impression on the atmosphere through which it 
wended its precipitate flight. 

But, on the other hand, were woman rightly edu- 
cated, and truly trained up in her allotted sphere, 
she could attain a degree of perfection not to be 
excelled in this side of heaven. She would stand the 
highest of all human beings in dignity and worth, 
were she to receive a proper culture of mind; and 
then, corresponding and attendant goods would mul- 
tiply motives conducive to her own self-happiness and 
respectability, and place her in a position but a little 
removed below the angels. Beside the neglect of 
education in the lower circles of female society, 
luxury in the higher circles is equally baneful in 
producing effeminacy of character and degradation of 
principle. The canvas of the historic page of the 
United States is conspicuously blended with these 
evils. The effects of luxurious excess, were it prac- 
ticable to bring it to public investigation, would sur- 
pass the wildest flight of oriental fable. 

This is most conspicuously obvious in the large 
.icies of our commonwealth, occasioned by luxury, 
6 



(j6 women's RiaHTS. 

excess, and idleness, wliich have become common and 
diffused throughout our wide empire, by the power 
of the railway and the steam impetus. 

Were female colleges and female institutions of 
learning organized and established throughout our 
country, the case would be otherwise than at the 
present. 

Young females of aspiring genius, opulence, and 
dignity, would be busily engaged in scientific, or some 
useful study, and graduating for some important 
vocation of life, who are now traveling the country 
for pleasure or levity, and who will return with heads 
empty as their purses, without doing good to them- 
selves or others. Traveling is essential ; but, when 
carried to excess, it becomes an evil. 

In my delineation of studies and sciences appro- 
priate for the female sex, I omitted much descrip- 
tion and many important theories ; namely, Physi- 
ology, Metaphysics, Phrenology, Anatomy, and the 
Ch'culation of the Blood. All these are essential 
and sublime studies, and should blend in the cata- 
loo-ue of the accomplished female's education. Music 
I also omitted, which is one of the most ancient as 
well as the most sublime and endearing sciences 
which ever engrossed the attention of the young 
female. Among the many myriads who study music, 
there are but a few who become competent musicians, 
a manifest proof that there are but few who are 



women's rights. 67 

gifted with, or possess the requisite genius, taste, 
and mental abilities, to acquire a theoretical and 
practical knowledge of this delightful, but intricate 
science. 

I am now drawing to the close of this important 
thesis, and must condense my thoughts in accordance 
to mj space; but I repeat it emphatically, and it is 
an undeniable fact, that the currents of vice, crime, 
and immorality which have deluged, and are now 
inundating, the fair face of our country, can be 
stemmed only by a general literary and moral female 
education. Educate women in youth, and they will 
keep their proper sphere through life. This will dis- 
pel the blighting miasma from the fragrance of our 
glorious Republic, and the banner of freedom shall 
wave unsullied in the blue arch of heaven. 

From the nature and the delicate organization of 
woman it may be readily inferred that she was not 
intended for elaborate struggle, nor extreme manual 
labor ; but in all ages, according to her physical and 
acquired mental abilities, she has manifested a higher 
degree of usefulness to the world than man. Admit- 
ting that she was entirely exempt from the active 
and troublesome cares of political life, from which 
the responsibility of a domicil would in most cases 
exonerate her, still I would invest in her (if educated) 
the high honors of advising and guiding her husband 
in a wise and just administration. She would form 



68 women's rights. 

the minds and shape the deportment of those who 
take upon them (whether husband or son) the great 
responsibility of political office. 

As w^oman is the active and real agent of the 
glory of man, so it is her plastic hand and ingenious 
intellect that alone can mold and modify him for 
the genuine purpose of the nation. 

While man is the active governor — woman is 
virtually the real mother of the State. 

Therefore, if we would have moral, true, and dig- 
nified rulers of our country — if we would secure to 
our fellow- citizens the attributes of intelligence, worth, 
and honor, we must first elevate the mental, the 
moral, and the religious condition of women. 

In the foregoing pages, I have endeavored to illus- 
trate the force and happy results of a thorough 
female education on the present and succeeding gen- 
erations of both sexes. The time is at hand when 
the elevation of the female sex must receive a pow- 
erful impetus and due consideration, as being the 
only means whereby social happiness, safety, and 
prosperity to the commonwealth can be sustained and 
promoted. The accomplishment of this improvement 
in the condition of society will disseminate education 
and knowledge — it will dignify and elevate the entire 
community, from the humblest domicil to the most 
magnificent mansion; and monuments of fame will 
yet arise to perpetuate the memory of illustrious 



women's eights. 69 

personages who will make themselves accessory in 
the achievement of this laudable requisition. 

It will be said that vice and depravity prevail 
among the female sex as well as in the male depart- 
ment. I admit it. But what is the cause? For 
want of a proper training and a proper bringing up. 
In the absence of education, and wherever the dark 
waters of ignorance flow, there will the alluvian 
mounds of decomposed morals accumulate, and there 
will the germs of corruption engender and fructify. 
But with regard to the aggregate amount of crime 
committed, the major part is on the male side of the 
question. Yes, decidedly so. If it were possible to 
accumulate the. amount of crime attributable to the 
female sex from the creation to the present day, and 
place it on the scale of a balance, and on the oppo- 
site scale place the accumulated enormous mass of 
crime committed by men since the same beginning, 
the latter would preponderate quicker than a sheet- 
anchor if cut loose from a cable's end, would sink 
to the bottom of the sea. Such is the incompatibility 
of the contrast, that a woman's depravity may be 
said to be original innocence, comparatively speaking, 
with the wickedness of man. As a proof of this (if 
proof be necessary), witness the conscripts of the 
judicial authorities, where they palpably show that 
nineteen-twentieths of the inhabitants of jails, peniten- 
tiaries, and States' prisons consist of the male sex. 



70 

But I am not looking for crime. It is a deplor- 
able fact, that there is existing, and being perpe- 
trated, too much crime on both sides of the question. 
It has been my primary object throughout these 
humble pages to adopt the measures and point out 
the methods whereby crime and depravity might be 
obliterated and extirpated from among us, and if I 
can but be in the least degree accessory in the ac- 
complishment of this achievement, I shall think my 
time well employed. 

I implicitly believe and must reiterate it, that 
there is no other way, unless by the interposition of 
Divine Providence, to exterminate immorality and 
crime, but by the propagation and thorough organ- 
ization of a system of pure female education. 

Is there a man on the face of the civilized habit- 
able globe ; is there a man under our glorious and 
free institutions on the Continent of America ; is there 
a man who mingles in the society of men, who would 
deny the female sex a just and equal participation 
in literary education, and in all the advantages and 
privileges pertaining to their sex and station, and 
thereby trample on Women's Rights f If such an 
one live, let his name be erased from among the 
names of honorable and enlightened men, and let it 
be indelibly inscribed on the catacombs of infimy 
and degradation, and filed in the archieves of oblivion 
and shame, and deposited in the lowest alcove of 



women's rights. 71 

eternal perdition, never, never, to be opened or read, 
but by his Satanic majesty, to bring to his reminis- 
cence that an emissary of his, a slimy reptile in 
human form, once infested this earth, denounced 
by all who knew him, and anathematized by the 
world. 

But it is to be hoped that such a man does not 
exist. 

It is my sincerest wish that literary, scientific, 
and moral female education may be established and 
propagated from State to State, and organized from 
shore to shore, from the Atlantic's margin to the wide 
Pacific, and to the interior of the remotest Territory ; 
that institutions of celebrity may grow up and be 
recognized by law, and be sustained by the fostering 
hand of our glorious Constitution. Convinced as I 
am, that the dissemination of universal female edu- 
cation will support the pillars of morality, will diffuse 
knowledge, which constitutes the power of protection, 
will promote happiness, peace, and personal safety, 
and will eventually result in elevating the present 
and succeeding generations above a mediocrity on 
the scale of humanity. 

I shall consider it my imperative duty, and one of 
my happiest desires, as long as vital air shall ani- 
mate my physical system, and genius shall supply 
my mental organization, to write and to advocate the 
inalienable Rights of Women, 



72 women's rights. 

CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion to the foregoing abstract on Women^s 
Rights, I will add that the brevity of my limits would 
not admit a sufficiently lengthy investigation of each 
essential and particular point, as touching the vitality 
of the whole; but I would at the same time request 
my readers to draw such inferences from the attributes 
of the subject, as will warrant them in judging im- 
partially, and whereby they can conspicuously behold 
its intrinsic merit, and the important necessity of 
elevating the position of the female sex universally. 

This can only be accomplished by efficiently carry- 
ing out the measures herein adopted, for the general 
dissemination of a moral and literary female education. 

By this laudabe achievement, the human family, 
male and female, would be elevated to a climax ap- 
proaching the acme of perfection in the great scale of 
being, arts and sciences would extend, commerce and 
manufactures would increase, peace and tranquillity 
would abound, and the blessings of a bountiful Provi- 
dence would descend upon us. 



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